Black Kettle

Black Kettle (1803-27 November 1868) was a chief of the Cheyenne during the Plains Indian Wars. Black Kettle resisted the United States' expansion into Kansas, and he was killed in the Battle of Washita River when George Armstrong Custer raided his camp in 1868.

Biography
Black Kettle was born in 1803, and he became a member of the Council of 44, the ruling body of the Cheyenne tribe. Black Kettle was a peacemaker, and in 1864 he decided to enter negotiations with Governor of Colorado John Evans to prevent a war from breaking out between the Native Americans and the United States. Black Kettle entered negotiations at Fort Lyon in 1864, but John Chivington's militia ambushed the Native Americans and massacred 163 women and children, and Black Kettle was wounded. Black Kettle decided to go to war with the US Army, leading to the Colorado War. Roman Nose led the Dog Soldiers, radical Native American cavalry, while Black Kettle continued peace negotiations with the US government, and George Armstrong Custer decided to indiscriminately target the natives. On 27 November 1868, he raided the Cheyenne camp on the Washita River, and Black Kettle and his wife were shot in the back while attempting to flee across the river.